#127 - How to Reach Your First $100K: Sales Systems, Lead Generation & Time Management with Julie Riga

Struggling with lead generation, inconsistent sales, or feeling stuck in the content creation loop? 

In this episode of Mindset to Market, business coach Julie Riga shares the practical, repeatable systems inside her Before I Lead program that help entrepreneurs build momentum and reach $100K in revenue. 

Topics include: 

• direct vs. passive outreach, 
• how to structure your weekly calendar for maximum sales activity
• what "golden hours" are and how to use them, and 
• why you should sell your offer before you build it

Follow Julie and learn more about her programs at: 

JulieRiga.com

Mindset to Market is a Luminous Creative Production. If you'd like to learn more about our business coaching program and group coaching container, please visit us online at DeborahcSmith.com.

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Mindset to Market is produced by Deborah C. Smith and designed to inspire and support big-hearted creatives in finding their own unique path, building a sustainable business, and creating financial, spiritual, mental wellness and abundance.

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Transcript

Okay, so you're building a business, but you're spending all of your time creating content, developing the offer, developing the program, developing graphics. You're doing everything except actually selling. So what if the way to shift out of that phase was less about what you're actually building and being ready, and more about just showing up week after week and putting in the reps? So today on the podcast, I'm sitting down with my friend Julie Ricca. She's an ICF certified leadership coach. She's the author of a book called Stay On Course, and she hosts one of the top 50 entrepreneurship podcasts globally. And so here's why I don't want you to miss today's episode. Number one, Julie actually breaks down her own program that she shares called Before I Lead, and it's exactly, you know, exactly what system she uses to help entrepreneurs hit their first 100K. Second, we talk about golden hours, what they are, why your most dreaded tasks belong there, and how to color code your calendar, which can reveal whether you're actually running a business or just staying busy. And the third reason is because Julie shares one mindset shift that really separates entrepreneurs out from who those who stay stuck to those who finally start gaining momentum to start building something and really sell. So this conversation is packed. It's real talk about the unglamorous parts of entrepreneurship and just actionable steps that you can take this week. So let's go. Hey there. Welcome to the Mindset to Market podcast, your go-to space for practical tools and solutions to the everyday challenges of being a creative and soulful entrepreneur living in a material world. I'm your host, Deborah Smith, a holistic business coach and marketing strategist with 17 years of experience. I help my clients bust through mindset blocks and learn daily marketing practices that balance personal wellness with financial growth and impact. I'm here to offer you support with creativity, mindset, practical how-tos, and getting into imperfect, messy action so you can experience daily breakthroughs as you grow. If you're a purpose-driven entrepreneur building an online business, you're in the right place. Let's dive in. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the show. I'm so excited today because I am joined by my fabulous guest, Julie Riga. And you guys, I just wanna tell you, I met Julie in person. That's how we know each other, at a business conference, and we hit it off and, and talked for many, many, many hours. So I'm thrilled to finally have her on my show as a guest. Julie, welcome to the Mindset to Market podcast. Thank you, Deborah, for having me. I'm so excited to be here today. I know. So we had a recent talk. I was actually a guest on Julie's podcast. Yay. And we, when we first met, we were chatting about all things marketing and business. It turns out we have quite a lot in common, but getting to know each other better, we've discovered that w- of course, like, like always, we're in slightly different lanes. So I'm really excited, Julie, to talk to you today about your approach to business coaching, how you're helping your clients, um, and just the way that you approach the day-to-day of serving clients and, and the, and the thing that you're building. So before we get into all of that, Would you be willing to talk a little bit about how you got into entrepreneurship? Yes. Thank you. When I first started my career, I really wanted to work in the music industry. That's actually the place that I started, and over the weekend, it's so cool, I had a conversation, uh, with somebody that I used to work with. And so one of the very first things that I did when I was younger is I worked for a famous rap artist. His name was KRS-One, and I know a lot of people out there have heard of him, but it was really, like, an entrepreneurial- uh, playground because his, he, he had a small business, and I worked for him, and I sort of learned the ropes of being a small business owner. And even though his business was being an artist, it was a small business. Yeah. Like, it was just him and a small group of people that were working towards getting him on stages, getting him more press, and, and helping him earn more money. So it was definitely my, uh, step into entrepreneurship, which I didn't really know until I started talking to the guy I was working with, Wesley. We talked about it last week, and I'm like, "Oh, okay, so that was my first taste of being an entrepreneur." And then, uh, through a bunch of different circumstances, I had to go back to corporate America and spend... I spent a lot of time in corporate America because I, I was a single mom and I needed to make a lot of money, and it was safe, and it was practical. Yeah. And that's what everyone told me I should do, but I didn't always fit in. And I was an intrapreneur, and a, a rule breaker, and a trailblazer, and I got in, I got myself in a lot of trouble, Debra. Yeah. You know, it's... I love this so much. Thank you for sharing that. You know, we, we had that in common because when we first met, we were chatting about the fact that my very first job in New York City as a young, like, hungry, excited, you know, creative, was I worked for Sting. I was, like, the m- uh, personal assistant to Sting's publicist. Wow. And so I was, like, opening his mail and delivering packages to his house. And remember when we first met, we were chatting- Yes ... about, like, clubs- Yes ... in the '90s in New York City, and, like, being part of an entourage with major famous, you know... So crazy. But it, also, your dad was an entrepreneur. Is that true? He was. He was, and then he wasn't. So there was times that he worked for other people, but there was time, there was a, a stint of time that he had his own restaurant. But I wasn't ali- well, no, I, I was alive. I was a little girl when he had his own restaurant, so yes, he was an entrepreneur. But on the side of that, he was a minor, a very minor celebrity back then. You know, he did, he did some TV, he had an agent. Like, he was on Regis, he was on David Frost, Johnny Carson- Yeah ... and he did a lot of stuff. Geez, Johnny Carson. So, yeah. So you know what's so interesting is when I was a little girl, I would see him on TV. I was, I saw him on Regis. He was cutting up fruit and singing on Regis, and I'm like, I was so embarrassed. Do you still have those clips? I do. You have to keep them all. That's amazing. Yeah. I have them. I have the clip. You can see it on my website, julieriga.com. You can go there. Under my speaker page, it's one of my videos there. I love that. Listen- But yeah ... I also wanna just shout you out for taking a, the path of caring for your child. Like, that conversation about, like, taking, taking the safer pathway temporarily, it's so real for so m- many people. Like, they want to pursue their creative dreams, but it's, it feels unstable and scary. And so I love that you... You know, I, I honor the fact that you chose that for the moment and the time, but then you got back into entrepreneurship. You know what? It's always unstable and scary. Let's just say that. It's- Well, I don't know. Yeah, there's never gonna be a time when entrepreneurship is not unstable and scary, right? Yeah. Uh, it's just the amount, what is the appetite you have for risk? What is the appetite you have for, you know, going and, you know, monitoring your Walmart run? Yeah. Which is, like, the truth, right? Yeah. This is stuff we don't talk about, is for two years when I'm starting up my business, I'm going to Walmart, and I'm like, "Can I afford these these little snacks?" Or- Yeah ... do I not afford them, you know? So I think it's like, it's the reality of entrepreneurship. If, if people not, are not talking about it, then they're just not talking about it 'cause it's uncomfortable. It's uncomfortable. It's uncomfortable, but, and it also makes you feel like you're not successful, you know, because there is a startup phase, right? Yeah. Every business has a startup phase. You're either gonna fund it yourself, or you're gonna fund it through your 401. That's right. Or, or you're gonna get, you're gonna fund it through your 401and your savings, or you're gonna get a loan. So obviously there's a startup. Or you're gonna harness intensely, wildly creative, like, artist, you know, build a scene type energy, which is a huge investment of time. You know, I think that it's like you're, it- you're always either building, borrowing, or buying an audience all, all the time, right? So it's, you know, either you have funding like you said, you're investing your own money, or you're, you're galvanizing time and, and, and sort of creative potential of whatever community you're a part of. That, yes. That's true, right? And the, the, the barter is real and great. I mean, you could do a lot of nice work through bartering. Yeah. So- The journey was long, but here I am, Debra. I know. Well, I love that because you've come through all of that, because you were on the ground floor of, like, a rising star of an artist in New York City in the '90s, because you worked for corporate America, because you had a parent who was, you know, actually, like, a hugely successful celebrity chef and was on TV, et cetera, all of that builds this sort of picture for you of what is possible. And I love that now where you landed is, like- ... helping entrepreneurs really kinda put in the reps, right? Like, the work that you're doing inside your programs is about building the stability that you, you need if you're going to be- Yes ... taking these kind of risks. So- It's true, and I think what, what my program does, um, and it's called the Before I Lead program, what I do with entrepreneurs is I give them a community and a consistent practice to build their business. So there's a lot of coaches that, you know, help you start up businesses that are, you know, it's six months, and then they leave you. But my program is really designed for the long haul, right? Until you start making $100,000 a year, my program is, is that program. Because I'm gonna get you to 100,000. I'm gonna get you to the place where you can now get someone to do this stuff for you, and I think that's, like, the breaking point. Yeah. The breaking point of my Before I Lead program is the moment of time where you can actually get services that will service your lead generation and momentum forward, your selling, and things like that. Yeah. My program, what it does is it teaches the small business owner how to do the follow-up, the selling, the lead generation, all that stuff to get clients to have conversations with you, and then also to get those people, um, the entrepreneurs, on a stage so it's one to many. How do I get ready for the stage? How do I find the stages to then share what I do? And then also the time management, the weekly practice of building your calendar in a way where it's gonna set you up for success. So- So a lot of consistency. Yeah, let's talk about... I, I, I, I love all of this so much, and I just heard so many amazing nuggets that I wanna kind of, like, break down for a second and talk about each of them. So I heard lead generation. I heard time management. I heard client onboarding, right? And then I heard, you know, building, building a pathway to having your own platform and leadership. So let's talk about those really quickly. So inside Before I Lead, this is your weekly coaching program. People meet with you how many times a week? Three times a week. So I do the same thing. I b- I feel like they need multiple touch points and opportunities to get that- Mm-hmm ... really build the muscle because entrepreneurship, by the way, not for the faint of heart. And I love that you said, like, how much appetite do you have for risk? Because- I think that's a hu- that's a cr- like, that's sort of an essential, uh, ingredient, right? You have to be willing to take a risk and believe in yourself. Otherwise, there's nothing but risk in, in entrepreneurship because- Exactly ... you're testing all the time, you're trying new things, so... But within that risk atmosphere, within that believe in yourself and go for your dreams, all that, which is exciting, and it feels like, you know, creative and shiny object, but we need consistent practices to, to show up and just do the work. Mm-hmm. Put in the hours, put in the reps, build the muscle, get comfortable be- being uncomfortable. So let's start with the stuff that you're doing inside your program that breaks that down into sort of programmatic, repeatable practices. Yeah. Do you have a system? Is it, like, one thing on Monday, another thing on Wednesday, and a third thing on Friday? Or- Yes ... how does that work? It's different. It's different. So every week I have three sessions. Mondays at 10:00 AM we do selling, only selling. Mm. We focus on lead generation, sales, follow-up, period. That's one hour every week. So the people that are trying to get those leads on their calendar, if they don't do it all week, they're doing it in my class when they come. I'm holding the time, and I'm saying, "This is what we're doing. For the next 20 minutes, you're gonna reach out to 200 new people. You're gonna send 15, uh, messages on LinkedIn. You're gonna send three audio messages and four video messages. We're doing it." And I'm like, "I'm gonna play some music," or, "I'm gonna put you guys on mute. Everybody do this, or I'm gonna put- break you out into breakout rooms. We're gonna talk about, like, the intro call. How are we breaking down the intro call? How do you get from the intro call to the strategy call? How do you perform a strategy call? How do you get them to get from the strategy call to a closing call, and how do you get from the closing call to your onboarding call?" So, like, I have- So it's like high-level sales training. It's high-level sales training. I have a playbook for them to go through the sales process, and then we break it down, we practice it, we do it, and it's never ends. It never ends. Yeah. The practice, the, the, um, consistency, especially when it comes to selling. Every small business owner needs to understand the power of the sales engine, right? Yeah. Yep. And that's what we teach on Mondays. I love, love, love it. I mean, preach. This is like, uh, you know, it, it's not only is it a crucial... It's the engine of your business. It's the engine. I'm laughing because so many people do, like... You know, I work a lot on the ideation creation side of the business, like development, where I'm helping people with their offer creation, helping them really envision what does the path look like to find you on the Internet, discovery, and then those initial... And we do get into sales, but a lot of times, you know, it's... That's a whole separate program because it really is a consistent never-ending thing that you have to get, you know, build into your business practice. So- It is. It is ... I'm like- And it's much more direct than passive. Okay, so that's the other thing. A lot of times, you know, when we're s- when we're putting out content, it's very passive, right? We're just, we're doing this thing and we're putting it out there. People are noticing us if they see us, you know, all that stuff. What, what, what's, what's powerful about what we're doing, it's direct to client. Yeah. It's literally a direct- Either message or conversation that then leads to the, the sale. It's similar to networking in person. Yeah. Because we're reaching them directly, they're contacting us directly, and we're having those conversations directly. I love it. So then what do you do the other two sessions of your week? Do you mind sharing? Yeah, of course, of course. Well, Fridays are super important because that is when we build the consistent practice of what golden hours are. Do you know what golden hours are? You know what? I've heard you talk about this, but share with us what golden hours are. Golden hours are the time where you have the most energy to do the things you least wanna do. Oh, love. Okay, so the least, the thing that you wanna do the least is what we're gonna do in the golden hours, and in the golden hours I'm going to make sure that you have those, and a lot of times that's lead generation kind of stuff- Yeah ... that you do in your golden hours. And so every color of, that we use in our calendar is for s- to get sales. So green is already you're making money, so the green time on your calendar is all the time that you're actually earning money. And what's so good about this is for an entrepreneur you can see the breakdown. Oh my God, there's only 20% of my week that I'm actually earning money. Everything else is lead generation. Everything else is me operating. Everything else is content development, but there's only a couple of hours a week where I'm working and I'm getting paid, okay? Yeah. And so right now if you were to look at my calendar, I can show it to you, you will see probably 30% of my time is getting paid, and the 70%, that's just the reality. The other 70% I'm not getting paid, but I can see by my color that that's the time I'm getting paid. Now, yellow is lead generation, hustle time. I call it gold. It's the gold. So gold, or hustle time, is all the time I'm spending talking to new clients, going to networking meetings, going to in-person networking meetings, uh, being on podcasts. You know, those kinds of things. Yeah. having my podcast, because in my podcast, I could potentially meet some new people that are, are, might become my clients, right? Yeah. So gold is, is hustle time. Then we have team, team time, which is blue. We have, um, also orange time is content development, and then we have red time, which is wasted time. But the mo- one that's most important, to be honest, is our wellbeing time. That's purple. I was just gonna say, purple. Purple, purple. I love that. You know that's my whole jam. Purple is well- yeah, purple is our wellbeing, and we must have a lot of purple time, because as entrepreneurs, we need to, we need to eat. Yeah, no one's coming to feed you. Nobody's coming to feed you. We need to sleep. We need to exercise. We need to drink water. We need to do things that are gonna nourish our hearts and our souls, and so we need to have that time on our calendar as well. Hallelujah. Absolutely, and I love that you have that blocked out in your calendar. That's so good. That's such- that's, that is, that's amazing. Well, and on Fridays, what we do is I teach or we do, like, what was the best tar- part of your week? Then, so everyone that comes, it's like, "All right, what was the best part of your week? What is the big thing you're excited about for next week?" And then I'm like, "Great. Now everybody start booking next week." So on Fridays at 10:00 AM... Oh, I think it's 9:00 AM. Fridays at 9:00 AM, these people are coming onto my call, and we are working to schedule the next week together on the call, because otherwise they're not gonna do it. Otherwise they don't do it. They're not gonna spend the dedicated time to schedule your week. And I play jazz music, and I always say, "Okay, guys, think about who did you meet with this week that you need to follow up with? Who did you meet last week that you need to get on your calendar?" So it's very much an activity from a, from a sales perspective. It's really, uh, from a sales perspective, 'cause that's the engine of our business- Yeah that we are booking out our calendar. So really Fridays and Mondays work together like glue, right? Yeah, absolutely. You do the Friday, and then you do the Monday, and then you do the Friday and the Monday, and then I also have one more program. And that's Monday nights at, at 7:00 PM, and that program is all about speaking, okay? Oh, I was gonna ask you about this. You do a speaker-focused conversation. Is that open to anyone, or is that closed for your community? You- no, if you wanna try it, you can come twice for free. So I let you come twice for free if you wanna try it. It's open on S- on Mondays at 7:00 PM. Anybody can come try it out. And what it does is it's the... People call it the best night of the week. Oh. So that is different... Yeah, they call it the best night of the week because we have fun. Yeah. That, that is fun because we do a little bit of, um, improv in there. We... I do a little teaching. Every, every session I'm doing a little teaching. We might do a little improv. We do a little creating of our talks because w- everybody's continuing to talk, create their talks. I teach people how to find speaking engagements, get prepared for speaking engagements, get paid for speaking engagements. All this stuff is done in this session, and every week I come with some different nuance of it. It's ongoing. There's no start or finish to any of my programs. There's no start or finish. So you can join at any time- I customize it in the moment to serve the needs of the people that are there. But, uh, but in those timeframes, it's only selling, uh, at 10:00 AM on Mondays. It's only speaking at 7:00 PM on Monday nights, and it's only time management. But within those topics, I have flexibility on how I can run the session, depending on who's there. That's so powerful. I love that you're doing speaking practice where people can kinda pitch a conte- concept or talk a little bit about what they wanna speak about if they're, if they do get an opportunity. Um, I would love... Just for fun, can you share a little bit, what does the improv look like? That's so interesting to me. Oh, so it d- it just... So, so what I do is sometimes I just pretend everyone's on my podcast. Oh, fun, fun, fun, and then you're interviewing them? I'm interviewing them. I do that. One time I made everybody come up with their superhero name. our superhero version of themselves and put their name in the chat. Like, the- where it says Debra Smith, not in the chat on their Zoom, where they change their name. Oh, their superhero n- yeah. Uh-huh. And I would interview them as their superhero. We've done that. Um, or I'll just, like, throw out a topic, and we'll just start talking about it, and then the next person might take it and change the subject and, like, you know, do it the next one. You know what I love about this so much is that we... So, you know, I've been in business for 20 years, self-employed. You've been self-employed for a long time. We have overc- I think it- after years and years of doing this type of work, like self-promotion, self-selling, all of that stuff, there's a layer of skin that you have to fully shed. The ego- Mm ... the sort of discomfort, the cringe. You burn it off. After a while, you're like, "Yeah, dude, I'm cringey. I'm out here making money." Like, I really think there's a level... And it, it, the thing is, what you discover is that it's not cringey. It's you being proud of yourself, being grounded in the work that you do and the service that you provide. So I'm using the word cringey just kind of for, like, context- Yeah ... to make us laugh, but you know what I mean. Like, there's a, there's a moment where you're like, "Do I really have to go live and say that in front of other people?" And it's like, well, if you wanna make the impact that you're here to make, and so what you're doing is giving these people a chance to start burning off that layer that is the discomfort, that- Yes that question mark of, like, can I open my mouth? Will my voice crack? Will my words come out in a funny way? Will I lose my train of thought? You know, we're all, every single person, when we first get started, has to kind of break the training wheels off, right? Yeah. And so what you're doing is giving people a platform to practice. It's really powerful. It's fun. It's fun. And fun. That's the other thing. It's fun. I mean- One of the things that we do is we take the Toastmasters, we hold up the Toastmasters platform. You know, we do the filler word counter. People get to, to hold the spot to practice, and we give them feedback. That's part of one of the most powerful things that we do there. So if something's coming up and you wanna practice in front of an audience, you come to Before I Speak if you want the feedback. And then we have a program on Thursday mornings where if you wanna get in front of another audience, I put you in front of, uh, another networking group with 30 people I have access to get you on that stage. And then from there you have all... You've built all this confidence to get on an actual stage, uh, in front of people. So we have multiple people that have taken the road and that have gotten on stages, like, not just virtual stages, but real stages. And so doing the groundwork, I, I call it, like, my Mr. Miyagi. It's very Mr.- Wax on, wax off. It's very Mr. Miyagi. It's- I love that ... it's, I'm Mr. Miyagi-ing you to be a speaker without you even knowing it. Like, I- it's so subtle. Yeah. And people are like, "Julie..." I have a one girl that comes, she's been coming a year to my program, and she does not quitting because she's like, "I don't think you realize, like, what's been happening to me as I'm coming," 'cause she's, English is a second language to her too. So she's learning, she's just being around the environment of us getting ready and having these conversations, and just being around that energy is helping her be a better version of herself. That's so good. And so that's what a lot of this is. It's a lot of reflection and laughter and, like, not taking yourself so seriously. You know, because the truth is nobody cares- Yeah. I mean- ... about the way your hair looked ... well, I think you and I are both examples of people who deeply care about helping other people, and are excited and motivated by service, and seeing our clients succeed, and make money, and have- Yes like, breakthroughs and ahas. But to your point, nobody on the internet is thinking about you much after they scroll by. So unless you're putting out something, some type of content that's really gonna either entertain them, relieve a little bit of their pain, or solve a little bit of their problem, they're not really paying attention to you. So those weird hair days, or that time that you screwed up when you spoke, or you know, that moment when you said something that you maybe fumbled or whatever, nobody's paying attention to that the way we- No one's paying attention. Because guess what? If, if you think everyone's paying attention to you and what you look like and what you're doing, you miss the point. Yeah. You have missed the point. It's not about you. It's about them. And I tell this to them, this is about them. This is about the transformation you're bringing to the moment for them. Yeah. This is not about you. So if you're still thinking about yourself, you still need work. We need to do more work, right? 100%. Because I need you to move out of the way- The ego needs to move out of the way. That's the thing. Yeah. And when the ego moves out of the way, then we can be that authentic version of ourself that has a message, that has something to say, because that is the work, right? The message, is the transformation. It's not, "Does my hair look right? Do I look fat today? Do I have the right shirt on?" It's not that. Yeah. That's not what it's about. Yeah, no, I love that very, very much. And so Before I Speak is the program on Monday nights, and Before I Lead is the ongoing container. Yeah, and I call it Before I Lead because this is the true foundation of what you need to prepare before you start hiring your team, okay? Let me ask you, uh, that's actually a good segue. So- Typically, what type of clients are coming into your program? Are they people... 'Cause I, I work with a lot of solopreneurs, but who would eventually like to have a team. So talk a little bit about the clients that you're seeing come through this program. Yeah. In this program, I have a lot of clients that are stuck, okay? They, they can't quite grow their business. They have a business that they've started, but they don't know how to get it to the next level. They can't find enough clients. They're not building the right consistencies, the right systems. Those are the people that are coming to this program. So what do you see happen after, say, three, four weeks of people putting in these types of reps and coming and showing up consistently? What's kind of the breakthrough that you see people have? I see them getting clients. Boom. That's the, that's the gold. I see them getting clients, and I see them coming and asking more questions. "I have a proposal to give, Julie. How do I do this? Hi, I just wanna make sure I'm on the right track." You know? Those are the things that are happening. They're getting conversations that are leading to clients. Isn't that so exciting? It's, really is truly, uh, I think one of the best parts of being a coach is seeing your clients actually make money. Like succeed and actually have this moment where they're like, "This is it. I've done it. I've figured it out." Yes. "I got a client, and I made the money." So good. So, so, so good. So I'd love to hear a little bit about your book and your podcast. Okay. Yeah. So- You, produce one show a week or two? Two. Two episodes a week. I do, I, I do two episodes a week new, and one third one, we do a replay of an old episode. Oh. So I'm, I'm posting three episodes a week. That is, that's... First of all, congratulations. That's, that... You have a team helping you do this, correct? I do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you have to have a team to do that. Yes. So- And it, yeah, a- and it just, I just started, like I would say in November, really promoting my podcast, really spending more money and more time promoting it, and that's when we started seeing the big numbers. In fact, I had the first person in my entire life find me over the weekend. I met her at a, a farmers market, and she says, "Oh my God, I, I saw you. I saw you on Apple. I absolutely got notified of your podcast." And I was like, "Yes!" I never met somebody, like, in person that is like, "I followed-" In a while. Yeah, it's pretty cool. That's so cool. I love that. So Stay On Course, I was a guest on this podcast. It's amazing, and basically, each of your episodes, you have a, a guest expert come on and give sort of like the three ingredients to their, their big key message. Is that right? That's right. That's right. Yeah, 'cause I've listened to two or three episodes, and I saw that theme, and I was like, "This is so brilliant." It's basically like, what is the big thing that you teach, and what are the key ingredients to that? So it's kind of got that same cooking theme. Does that, it is. It's the same cooking theme, and if you really think about it, it really sets you up for your signature talk. So if you're a thought leader, uh, that's kinda like what happens in a way, and I tell people to think about it like that. Use it as a method for you to grow, because I'm asking you, what is the thing that you love to talk about? I wanna talk about that thing, and I wanna frame it as your thought leadership, and what are the ingredients for the success in that space? And then take that framework, because it's three, and then use that to create your signature talk, because, you know, in a signature talk, you have one message, and there's three main points. Bam, you have a signature talk. Yeah. So good. So what is something that you are looking forward to that's coming up for you soon? Wow. There's a bunch of webinars and seminars that I'm working on. So I'm wor- I'm running one in May on LinkedIn where we're working on, like, the human side of AI. Oh. And then ov- yeah. Interesting. Over the summer, yeah, over the summer I'm doing something so different. I'm running a program called, Thrive in College. It's a college readiness program. So I'm working with seniors that are going into college, and I'm helping them build the muscle to be able to withstand the, the stress of college through time management, through some, like, super skills that they need, which is fun. Wow, that is really wonderful. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, everything that I do is all about the power of being ready. Everything that I do is about getting ready for your next level of success. And so whether y- be you're going into college or you're coming out of college or you're building your career or you're starting out as an entrepreneur, and I'm wrapping in these very practical, consistent methods so people can stay successful. Yeah. So it's, you know, one thing to, like, you know, "Oh, I'm having this successful time in your life", but it's the consistency of doing it over and over again that's gonna make you consistently successful for the long game, for the journey. Yeah. I was reading in this morning in my book that I'm reading, the, the creative brain would rather go for, like, a risky, painful failure than the boring, consistent tasks that actually build true success, and it... I highlighted it, I underlined it- Yeah ... and I said, "Talk to Julie about this today." So I'm paraphrasing, it's not an exact quote, but it was basically, um, Julia Cameron, I'm reading The Artist's Way, and... Rereading, I should say. And, um, yeah, it just leapt off the page at me, and I thought it was so relevant for business, this idea that we, we sort of, like, convince ourselves that the, the, the pain of the loss will be worth it if we can, like, you know- Strive for some big flashy result, and, and even if that means crashing hard and losing and failing and having a heartbreak, like, that's more palatable to a creative brain than just, like, showing up every day and being like, "All right. I'm gonna block out my schedule today. I'm gonna make these 10 calls, okay? And then I'm gonna do it again next week." And I, I thought that is entrepreneurship in a nutshell. Like, it's kind of like how people chase viral content on social media without building, you know, SEO into their website. It's like, it's not... SEO is not fun. It's kinda boring, but if you embed it in your website, you're gonna get hits on Google. Yeah. Period. You're gonna get more visibility from doing the boring repetition things. You're gonna make more sales by setting yourself up for 10 outreaches a day than you are trying to go viral. Yeah. But yet we're- we've got this brain that craves the excitement and the possibility, and so I don't know if that's something that you encounter with your program. Yeah. I mean, what I do is I see a lot of people. I love... I think it's so funny 'cause I do a lot of one-on-one calls with people, learning about what they do, and the thing that cracks me up the most is when I hear them say, "Oh, I'm developing content. I'm developing this program, developing that." And I'm like, "I'm just so busy developing content." And that's the number one thing. That's my big, that's the big red flag right there. It's a red flag. That's a red flag. Oh, you're just gonna cont- w- so you're just gonna keep doing that, right? You're gonna keep developing content because it feel- it's safe. It's so safe. It's the safe thing to do, develop content. Yeah. But the- I call it the procrasticreating. Procrasti-creating, yes. And I'm like, why don't you try to sell something before you create it? Why don't you just create the outline, and if you sell it, then you can create it. But don't create it until you sell it. And so now that's what I've been doing. Like, I, I tell people that. I do that myself. I create the outline. If you want it, I will build it. If you build it, they will come, they say, right? Yeah. Well, I'm gonna build you the outline. And 'cause I, I have tons of stuff. All I need to do is, you know, move things together. At this point, as you build and build and build, especially as a professional development coach, I have tons of content, right? So all I need to do is pull something together. If I have an outline, I can pull it together. Yeah. And so, uh, I utilized people paying me to do stuff to create stuff. I hope everybody heard that. Build it before you create all the content. Build it and sell it first. Yes. Absolutely, 100%. It really is true, and it's so sad when people spend, you know, months and months building out a huge program, and then they can't sell it because they didn't take the time to actually connect with the humans that might buy it from them and make sure it's a right fit. So that happens too often. Yeah. Well, I mean, they... Even if it is the right fit, they would never even get to that point because they're not selling. They're not selling. They, they're not in the mindset of selling. That's why when I bring people through my program, I start them on Fridays. I start you on Friday because I want you to understand the color breakdown. If you are an entrepreneur and you haven't made your first 10,000, your first 100,000, you need to have your entire calendar mostly yellow Mostly yellow. And that means having conversations with people, finding people to have conversations with, end of story. Finding people to have conversations with, that's it. That's where you start. When you find people to have conversations with, you find out if they could potentially be your client or not be your client. If they're not your client, they're possibly an affiliate, or they're possibly a referral, or they're possibly a partner. You put them on your power team. It, this game of entrepreneurship is all about connecting with people, end of story, period, let's close it up, right? I love- That's what it's about ... a woman. That's it. That's it. We're done. We're done. So that's it. I mean, and you need all the stuff behind you. You need the operations. Yeah. You need the, you need the funnels. You need, you need all that stuff behind you. You need GoHighLevel or whatever your CRM is. Yeah. You need to have, you know, all your social media. All that stuff you need, but you don't have to have that stuff to get started. What you need to have to get started is conversations. Conversations with other human beings. That's it. Yeah, 100%. Woo. Put... That's, uh, put a bow on it. Ship it. We're good. That's the advice. We can, we can end right there. Just drop the mic. Yeah. We'll just drop it. Mic drop. That's it. Um, oh my God, Julie, you are, you are a wealth of amazing programming and ideas and creativity, but just real, deep, solid knowledge. So I'm really grateful that you're here. Um, where can we find you online? Where can everybody stalk you? Julieriga.com, the easiest place to go, there you will find all of my program information, my podcast. There's places to set up a call with me, julieriga.com. And for all listeners, I highly recommend you drop in and, and attend one of Julie's classes. I was part of an event or a class or something a couple months ago and I was... I got so much out of it. I- believe it was, um, we were practicing a content, structured piece of content or something like that. She shared something new, and instead of being like, "Teach, teach, teach, talk, talk, talk," she said, "Let's do it. Let's everybody do it right now. Everybody get your paper out, get your pen out. We're all making this piece of content." And I walked away with a really good, messaging piece that I wound up using the next day that led to a conversation that led to a client. Yes, girl, yeah. Yeah. I didn't know that. I forgot to tell you. Yeah. That I didn't know. So I highly recommend take Julie up on her drop-in Before I Speak, Before I Lead. She's got really, really solid practices that are highly effective. And I can't wait to, hear more about your summer programs. And thank you so much for being a guest. Do you have any last words you wanna share with listeners? I think what I've been on a rampage with today, or, or... I, I call it a rampage or a rant, is really lean into your purpose. Lean into the thing that you feel like you were created for. Because outside and inside of that is all the energy you need to do the thing that will light you up from the inside out. And so I just wanna encourage everybody out there to stay connected to your purpose, stay on course, so that you can leave a legacy. Yes. Hallelujah. Thank you so much. All right, my friends, I'm telling you, lean into your purpose is such a perfect way to end this conversation. Thanks so much to Julie for joining us today. And listen, reach out to Julie directly. Email me if you have questions about today's interview or if you wanna g- grab any of her links, they're gonna be in my show notes. And as always, my beautiful friends, thank you for being on this journey with us. Thank you for hanging with us today, and may you be vibrant.